By

YasirMasood

ProductDesignProcess

Typicaldesignquestions:
Whatpropertiesshouldithave?
Whatsizeshoulditbe?
Whatweightshoulditbe?
Howstrongshoulditbe?
Willtemperatureaffectit?
Willhumidityaffectit?
Isreliabilityimportant?
Iseaseofcarryinganissue?
Isitcontrolledbylegislation?
Arethereanysafety
requirements?
Doesitneedpower?
Willitbeapollutant?
Willitconsumeenergy?
Howcomplextousecanitbe?
Howlongshoulditlast?

Whatwillbreakit?
Willitcorrodeorbecorroded?
Howwillitbreak?
Whathappensifitbreaks?
Whatshoulditbemadeof?
Whatshoulditlooklike?
Areergonomicsimportant?
Areaestheticsimportant?
Isthereafashionelement?
Isthereacertainstyleneeded?

TypicalDesignQuestions

Howwillitbeused?
Wherewillitbeused?
Whereelsecoulditbeused?
Howwellshoulditperform?
Whoisitfor?
Whydotheywantit?
Whowillactuallyuseit?
Howmanyuserswilltherebe?
Whatisthemotivationforitsuse?
Aretheresimilardesignsalready?
Willavarietyofdesignsbenecessary?
Howmanypartstoitshouldtherebe?
Howaccuratedoesitneedtobe?
Howshoulditbemade?
Howmanydoweneed?
Whatarethetoolingcosts?
Canitberationalized?
Canitbestandardizedinthecompany?
Isitstandardizedwithintheindustry?
Willweneedsuppliers?
Willweneedsubcontractors?
Howwillweevaluateit?
Howcanweprotectitagainstdesign
infringement?
Whenisthelaunchdate?
Ispackagingimportant?

Ispresentationimportant?
Isitondisplay?
Whatistheshelflife?
Howimportantisavailability?
Iscommissioningnecessary?
Shoulditbemaintainable?
Howsecurewillitneedtobe?
Willitneedservicing?
Willsparepartsbenecessary?
Whatwillhappentoitwhenit'sfinished?
Howwillitbeimplemented?
Dousersneedtraining?
Dousersneedoperatingmanuals?
Isproductsupportnecessary?
Technicalupdates?
Whataboutwarranties?
Whatdesignbudgetisavailable?
Isthecashavailable?
Whatistheprofitrequired?
Whatisthereturnoninvestment?
Isthereatimescalerequirement?

Typicalbusinessorientateddesignquestions:

If a company invests 1.4% of its sales in

research and development it will lead to a
13% rise in profits in five years. A 1%
investment in detailed design alone may
raise a company's profits by 4%, particularly
within the consumer goods industry. The US
spends around $90 billion or 2.8% of its
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on R&D.
The UK spends around 12 billion or 1.8% of
its GDP on designrelated activity.

Reasearch &Development

Typicaldesignquestions:
Whatpropertiesshouldithave?
Whatsizeshoulditbe?
Whatweightshoulditbe?
Howstrongshoulditbe?
Willtemperatureaffectit?
Willhumidityaffectit?
Isreliabilityimportant?
Iseaseofcarryinganissue?
Isitcontrolledbylegislation?
Arethereanysafety
requirements?
Doesitneedpower?
Willitbeapollutant?
Willitconsumeenergy?
Howcomplextousecanitbe?
Howlongshoulditlast?

Whatwillbreakit?
Willitcorrodeorbecorroded?
Howwillitbreak?
Whathappensifitbreaks?
Whatshoulditbemadeof?
Whatshoulditlooklike?
Areergonomicsimportant?
Areaestheticsimportant?
Isthereafashionelement?
Isthereacertainstyleneeded?

TypicalDesignQuestions

QFDisa'structuredmethodforproductplanningand
development'.Becausethestagesbuildintoa'house'
liketable,itissometimesreferredtoasa'houseof
quality'.

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a technique that aims to

improve communication between the customer and the designer. It
stems from work by the quality 'guru' Juran who proposed a ten
step approach to quality planning beginning with the identification
of the customer and their needs and ending with the transfer to
operations. Starting at the Kobe Shipyard in 1972, the Japanese
adopted and developed this idea as a business strategy to plan the
quality related aspects of products and coined the term 'quality
function deployment'. QFD is hence a tool that ensures customer
requirements are built into a design. In focusing on risks and
achievables at an early stage it avoids midcourse corrections
caused by traditional problems of relying on weak specifications
and ill defined concepts. It has since become a widespread
technique through many industries.

QualityFunctionDeployment(QFD)

KeyPointOnQFD

TheVoiceofthecustomer
CompetitorsAnalysis
VoiceoftheEngineer
Correlations
TechnicalComparisons
Tradeoffs

DifferentcompanieshavedifferentversionsofQFDbuttheyallrevolve
aroundthesamesixbasicsteps.Theseare:

QFDSteps

include:
Improvingunsoliciteddatacollection.
listentoeveryoneinthecompany(drivers,cleaners,sales,etc.)
Askpeople!Usemarketresearchandunbiasedconsultants
Quantifytypesofcomplaint
UsefishbonediagramsthatlinkeffectsofcomplaintswithCauses
Usemultivariateanalysis(e.g.clusteringresponsestofindtheroute
importantparameters)
Prioritizeparameters(iterativerankingbetweengroups)metrics(shouldit
besmaller,largerornominal)canhelptosimplifytheprocess

DifferentcompanieshavedifferentversionsofQFDbuttheyallrevolve
aroundthesamesixbasicsteps.
(1)Thevoiceofthecustomer
The 'voice of the customer' involves listening to customers and analyzing
customer requirements. Customer requirements can be further
categorized into 'basic' or expected features, 'onedimensional features
which increase customer satisfaction as they improve or 'exciters which
are nonexpected features that truly differentiate a product (Kano).
Methods of listening to the voice of the customer might

QFDSteps

(2)Competitoranalysis
Comparingcustomerrequirementswithwhatcompetitorscurrently
offercansummarizethecompetitivescenario,orderthecustomer
requirementsandidentifythekeyareasforimprovement.Inthe
examplehouseofqualitywewilluse2competitors(NandE)and8
analyticalcolumns:

columnAisthecompany'sconcept
columnBisthecompetitionproducts
columnCisthetargetlevelofimprovement
columnDrepresentsthelevelofimprovementrequired(C/A)
columnEisweightedcustomerneeds(1.5strong,1.2potentialor
1.0normal)
columnFiscustomers'ratingofimportance
columnGisaweightingfactorofDxExF
columnHiscolumnGexpressedasapercentage
columnsAandBmayalsobepresentedgraphically.

Cont.

Typicaldesignquestions:
Whatpropertiesshouldithave?
Whatsizeshoulditbe?
Whatweightshoulditbe?
Howstrongshoulditbe?
Willtemperatureaffectit?
Willhumidityaffectit?
Isreliabilityimportant?
Iseaseofcarryinganissue?
Isitcontrolledbylegislation?
Arethereanysafety
requirements?
Doesitneedpower?
Willitbeapollutant?
Willitconsumeenergy?
Howcomplextousecanitbe?
Howlongshoulditlast?

Whatwillbreakit?
Willitcorrodeorbecorroded?
Howwillitbreak?
Whathappensifitbreaks?
Whatshoulditbemadeof?
Whatshoulditlooklike?
Areergonomicsimportant?
Areaestheticsimportant?
Isthereafashionelement?
Isthereacertainstyleneeded?

TypicalDesignQuestions

'Customerdemandsforacombustioncontrolsysteminthebiofuel
industrywereclassifiedunderfourmaincategories.Theserequirements
maybeseeninthelefthandcolumnoftheaffinitydiagram.Each
customerrequirementhasbeenfurtherclassifiedasbeingabasic,one
dimensionalorexcitementfeature.'

AffinityDiagram